Most memorable sporting event that I attended in person: 2003 US alpine skiing national championships (I got to see Bode Miller go into the fence!) and 2005 US Open quarterfinals (Blake vs. Agassi). I'm also looking forward to attending the 2008 Leadville (CO) town downhill (some sources say I will be competing, but...they're wrong) and the Leadville skijoring taking place that same weekend

Fan gift that you can give me if you want to be really nice to me: a tour package that includes all necessary tix and travel to the Hahnenkamm, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the Palio, the Gauley Rodeo, a Snow Bowl at the Razor Blade, and seats about eight rows back on the third base side at Yankee stadium.

Non-fan gift that you can give me if you want to be really nice to me: a new roof rack for the new Vehicle of Fun, or a new whitewater kayak to go on it.

Fave beer: Steel Rail Pale Ale (Berkshire Brewing Company)

Big objet de hate at the current moment: the YES network. Still. They haven't done anything to make me stop hating them.

Recent Links

Question About Armstrong Post: After reading the book, no doubt is left in the reviewer's mind as to Armstrong's guilt. If this is a quote from the article, shouldn't it be in quotes? And if it isn't, it's editorializing, and doesn't belong in a fpp.

Fantasy football in the age of CTE: So, here's the deal: for the past five years, I've run my (small) company's fantasy football league. It's become something of an office institution, with two annual trophies (the championship trophy and the Toilet Bowl) that get passed on to each season's champions, with a new plaque with their names. We have a lot of fun with it. I'm just not so sure that I can continue to have fun, given what we're learning about CTE.

I'm not interested in getting into a debate about whether CTE caused Junior Seau to kill himself, or about whether his career as a football player caused the CTE. It's enough for me to know that former professional football players seem to be showing up with a lot of CTE, and that CTE's effects are profoundly crippling (not to mention the other ailments that ex-NFLers are prone to). It's enough for me to know that this happens and that the NFL is soft-pedaling it, when (as I see it) the only ethical course of action would be to pursue it as aggressively and discuss it as fully and publicly as possible. I can't make the NFL do the right thing, but I can refuse to give my support to them as they do the wrong thing. Withdrawal of fan support over this issue is the only thing that will cause the NFL to take it seriously.

Accordingly, I'm thinking about resigning my commissionership this year, and announcing my reasons why to my league. I'll hand it over to anyone who wants to run it, but to be honest, I think that once I speak up about it, no one is going to feel ok going ahead with it. I don't want to be the Ruiner of Fun, but I don't feel ok just starting up the league as if nothing is wrong.

One alternative that has occurred to me is to charge would-be players $20 to join the league, and donate the money to an organization such as PAST (see the link) that unlike the NFL, is actually doing something about CTE. I don't know much about PAST, though (like whether they're actually doing any good). I also don't know if there are other organizations that are either helping former athletes directly, or working on the NFL to change policies. So, this was all a rather long-winded way of asking: does anybody out there know more about organizations that are doing something to address the issue of CTE and other health problems in ex-NFL players?

Back button don't work with Chrome: Post a comment, hit the back button. You go back to the page where you were editing your post. Hit back again, you go to the thread with the comment posted. Back again, you\'re back to the edit page. Back again, thread with the comment posted. The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, and what do you think he saw?

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

I can't recall a time here when special phrasing was required to draw an opinion out of you.

And I can't recall a time here when you were able to refrain from passive-aggressive swipes at people who disagree with you. You've been doing it to people throughout this thread, along with a generous larding of strawman argumentation and conveniently sloppy restatements of other people's beliefs. Let me put it to you straight: people in this thread have been talking about what they think, and you've got some inexplicable need to beef with them about it, despite the fact that NO ONE has tried to bully YOU out of your belief that Fireman Ed or Crazy Ray are an essential "part of the show". I suggest that you stop trying to promote groupthink; it's a waste of time. People hold different views than you.

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

The idea he lost some "dignity" as a fan by cultivating a persona and never missing a game makes me wonder how much dignity you think there is in sports fandom.

If you want to know what I'm thinking, maybe you could try asking "What do you think about...?" It's a lot more straightforward and more likely to get you the answer you claim to be seeking, although it may not be the one you want.

I think when you ask the question "How much dignity do you think there is in sports fandom?", you've got the stick by the wrong end entirely -- but you've got plenty of company. There are plenty of people who clearly are drawn to sporting events because of the opportunity it gives them to act like a buffoon in public, free of censure. I've seen enough of this to think that it's a basic human urge, to act like a clown from time to time. It's the "from time to time" thing that's important. How much dignity is there in sports fandom? Just as much as there is in the human condition. If you're governed by the need to play the fool in public, so that you can't just shrug and walk away from the whole thing with no drama, no histrionics, no lip-quivering declarations about how tragic it all is...you lack dignity as a human being, and sports fandom has nothing to do with it.

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

For some reason, Wikipedia articles just don't trigger my "person who really ought to know better, showing their ass in public and making me cringe in sympathetic embarrassment" reaction. Maybe it's the difference between "Yeah, I went there" and "For chrissakes I'm just trying to watch the game".

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

They are. Especially in college football and soccer.

So who gets to decide what parts of the fan experience are "part of the show", what are ancillary, and what are annoyances that we'd rather not deal with but put up with in order to see the "show" (presumably an athletic event) that we came to see? Is "Sweet Caroline" part of the "show" at Fenway Park? How about the overpriced beer at the average NLF stadium or the parking-lot traffic jams leaving a Div I football game?

Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet

Yeah, put me down for a "gets old fast" too. My reaction to the whole Fireman Ed thing was, I get being a devoted fan, but come on, you're a grown man. Being a devoted fan doesn't mean losing all dignity and sense of proportion.

Ill Teen's Pep Talk Inspires New York Giants

Could the Yankees Be Sold?

Oh god no, not that right-wing pig-animal.

(yeah, it's better than The Donald; otoh, it's increasingly clear that Trump's euphemistally-termed "hairpiece" is just a cover for his tin-foil hat, and that he's likely to be in a psych ward before too much longer and not a threat to my favorite baseball team)

Could Alabama beat an NFL team?

NFL eyeing bigger plans for London?

Why do you hate games in London? It's not as if most of us get to see them live even when they're in the US. The time differential is a problem if a west coast team is involved, but watching the Pats it was just another 1 pm game for me.

(also, it's an excuse to serve chicken tikka masala at the tailgate -- the English national dish!)